ABSTRACT
This chapter underlines the 'ignorance' of Strauss's rash, transcultural judgments and his critique of the 'inability' or unwillingness of social sciences to make judgments of that sort. This kind of Straussianism is still alive in academia but it has also jumped species to reverberate in nativist rants of right wing talk show hosts. The bloodless drones, the antiseptic, relativist social scientists of Strauss's imagination would conduct their study of a concentration camp, avoiding allusions to cruelty in order to avoid moral judgments. Recognition and indeed legitimization of the value-relevant interests of the investigator is what distinguishes Weber from general relativism as well as the Straussian essentialism and exceptionalism. Instead of echoing the self-righteous claims of a dominant culture, Weber represents a conscious adaptation of the social science to the limits of human condition.
